Dear Oracle
by Team Valdez
Summary: The Oracle is the anonymous recipient of every letter submit to the school paper's advice column. This comes with having the inside information of the student body's lives, struggles, and relationships. What they don't know? How everything goes down in real life. Rated for some pairings, general drama, and teenage shenanigans.
1. Nemo

**Dear Oracle,**

**There's this girl in my homeroom that I've liked for a while. Really smart, really pretty, and REALLY out of my league. A friend told me that I should write to you for advice on how to handle this. I tried asking her for some tips, but they haven't exactly been… effective.**

**-Nemo**

"Get her diamonds," Piper shrugged, waving a french fry through the air for emphasis, "shoes work too. Jewelry. Candy. Expensive stuff that will have you in debt for years. Girls love that."

"Dude, we both know that I can't afford anything like that," Percy sighed in exasperation.

"So? You want a girlfriend, you get a job."

"I have a job."

"You're a lifeguard, and a shitty one at that. That isn't a job." Piper nudged her best friend in the arm. "Check out that one, eleven o'clock behind you."

Percy turned and scanned the classroom, two blondes hunching over a laptop near the most intimidating girl in the state catching his eye quickly.

"Jason?"

"Yep. He's in my Honors Government class. Whaddya think?"

"Well," Percy began ticking off fingers, "he's class president, popular, and essentially everything that you aren't. I can see more than one problem with this."

"He's also a gentleman, which is more than you can say about yourself."

"Touché. So, are you going to talk to him or keep staring?"

"Relax, I have a plan," Piper smirked through another mouthful of fries. While Tristan McLean could hardly be reached, his assistant, Mellie, was happy to pick up lunch for the two when asked nicely.

The two sat and ate their McDonald's in the ridiculously loud study hall. At the other end of the rows of desks, Annabeth Chase was singlehandedly demonstrating a new budgeting plan to the other student council members, covering for their treasurer, Frank, so that he could spend time with his girlfriend before their next class.

"So if we transfer some of the profits from the Fall Festival and move them," she clicked several keys, bringing a large pie chart onto the screen, "then we can increase the dance committee funding."

"And then we can afford to have formal in May." Reyna gave one of her rare smiles. "Very nice, Chase."

"We still need a theme, for the fliers and decorations we need to order." Jason added. "Annabeth, do you still have the list of options from last time?"

"Are you kidding? Of course I do." She opened a new file and scrolled through her notes. "Looks like our options are 'Black and White', 'The 5o's', 'Masquerade', and 'Red Carpet'. What do you guys think?"

Reyna furrowed her brow in thought, but Jason only stared intently at some point across the sea o their classmates.

"Still with us, Grace?"

He shifted his gaze back to his fellow officers, sans treasurer. "I was just, um, watching Piper and Percy. Seeing if they were actually doing anything for once."

The three subtly turned in their seats to catch a glimpse of Percy with two straws in his mouth, imitating a walrus, while Piper snorted with laughter next to him.

"Charming, aren't they?" Reyna mused.

"Percy's in homeroom with me again this year. He seems nice enough, but I'm almost positive that he hasn't turned in any classwork since middle school."

"I have French with Piper, but she at least seems to do the work assigned there. I cant see how, the verbs are too complicated for me.' Jason sighed.

"You should have taken Latin with Frank and I," Reyna shrugged, "it can actually be fun sometimes."

Their grey-eyed secretary turned back to her laptop as they continued their banter, unaware of Percy's eyes focused on her.

* * *

Annabeth literally _ran _into Percy Jackson on her way out of her Biology class as school let out, causing every book in her arms to drop to the floor.

"Sorry!" Percy leaned down to grab a textbook that she had also reached for, knocking their heads together with a _thud_. The two groaned and mumbled apologies as they gathered the books. Percy's mind went blank as she stood, nearly his height, and didn't catch a word of what she was saying.

"Excuse me?" She looked worried. "I didn't hit your head that hard, did I? Should I take you to the nurse?"

"I, uh, No. I just," he held out a thick stack of books in front of him with stiff arms, "you dropped these."

"Thanks for that." She maneuvered the pile into her own arms and steadied them. She lifted her head to speak again before noticing just exactly _whom_ she had collided with.

"Long time no see, Percy."

"I could say the same for you," He smiled even though he felt like his heart were in his mouth, "how's student council working out for you?"

She sighed. "Still busy as ever planning. Reyna and the guys still have me working until the last minute for everything."

"So like, the same as always?" She laughed, but paled when her eyes met the clock on the wall. She was going to be late.

"Look. I have a meeting in a few minutes, so…"

Shit, she was leaving. He had to say something fast. This may be the only time that they would talk all week. Excuses, think excuses!

"Want me to walk you down? I have swim practice today."

"You're still on the swim team?" Was it really that shocking? Percy felt more than a little embarrassed by her bewildered expression.

"Yeah, so I can walk you to your meeting and then head to the gym, since I would be staying late anyways." Please work please work please work…

"Sure, if you don't mind." Annabeth smiled and started down the hallway, with Percy mouthing 'thank you' at the ceiling before jogging to catch up with her.

* * *

**Dear Nemo,**

**Your friend was right about coming to me, you sound a little stranded! If you're interested in this girl, just try breaking the ice. Find out some things that the two of you have in common and make some small talk to start out. Stay casual and be yourself, and I can assure you that everything will turn out fine.**

**Go get her fish boy!**

**-The Oracle, New Roman Times**

* * *

"What idiot came up with that name? It doesn't even begin to make sense!"

"It's a pun, Octavian," Rachel explained as if she were speaking to a kindergartener, "Times New Roman? New Roman Times? Its perfect! It goes great with the design, and we even have our own Oracle!"

"Romans didn't even 'have'oracles!"

"Oh hush. Now, go review the final copies while I finish up."

Octavian huffed and kicked his swivel chair to the desk that he had claimed in freshman year to begin skimming the newspaper that rested atop of it. Rachel had insisted that he stuck around until six rather than five to finish the issues for the week, while she read through the letters sent to the paper's advice column.

"Are you still working on those? In case you haven't gotten it through that obnoxiously red head of yours, these need to be out by tomorrow."

"Will you relax? I have like, three left. How's your stuff looking?"

"Fine, just like how they did when I did them the first time."

"Then go home already, ill just scan these in with the responses before I close up shop."

Octavian muttered some form of a thank-you and grabbed his backpack, pausing to lean over Rachel's shoulder and study a sloppily scrawled letter on her desk. "What do these idiots even write to you about?"

"They aren't idiots, idiot, they're my adoring readers. The letters that I receive are actually rather interesting."

He arched an eyebrow and made a "go on" gesture.

She cleared her throat and made a show of shuffling through a fat stack of envelopes. "A guy who calls himself "The Ghost King" is griping about his new lab partner for the semester, "Nemo" has the hots for a girl too good for him, and someone waaay too formal to be in tenth grade is having trouble with planning some important dinner with one of the sports team captain's."

"Doesn't it feel at all weird to you that complete strangers are writing you these letters?"

"Oh please, its not like they know its me. Besides, I have a good idea about who they are. Nico di Angelo, the broody kid? He must be the Ghost King, Reyna is the stick-up-the-butt, and Percy is obviously Nemo talking about Annabeth Chase!" she exclaimed.

"So you always know these identities?" She could have been wrong, but she swore that he sounded almost afraid.

"Well," Rachel chewed her lip thoughtfully, "there have been some letters from random people that started coming in after winter break, signed anonymously, you know. Its harder to track them down."

Octavian rolled his eyes and once again made his way towards the door, only to pause. Again. So much for leaving on time. "How many of those did you say that you had left?"

"Three or so, they're all in my mailbox over there. Mind bringing them over?"

He sighed dramatically and shuffled over to a purple box near the trash bin, painted with swirls of green and gold. Octavian halted for a moment when he was absolutely sure that Rachel was not paying attention that he did something so idiotic and childish that it would haunt him for nights to come. Not exactly in the way that you would expect, however.

The blond dropped a neatly folded piece of notebook paper into the cardboard box and left without saying a word.

"Thanks, asshole." Rachel yelled after him.

"Anytime."


	2. Beauty Queen

**Dear Oracle,**

**So there's this boy, and he's essentially perfect. I'm thinking about going on the offensive and asking him out. I'm pretty sure he likes me back (Ha, I wish) but the thing is he's probably **_**way **_**too good for me. Any advice?**

**-Beauty Queen**

Piper slouched in her chair, staring lazily up at the ceiling and balancing her pencil on her upper lip with intensity that rivaled that which she used in swimming and surfing.

It's not that she was _intentionally _tuning out their French teacher, Monsieur O'Malley (whose name and dubious accent did not loan confidence to the probably flawed information he was giving then), but the class was just so… boring.

And to make the entire thing even more unbearable than it already was, out the window she could see the sunny sky and the breeze that ruffled the leaves of the trees in the parking lot. It was April, and already she had seen ideal surfing conditions. It was also, however, Thursday, so it would only be two more days until she could drag Percy to the beach and try to beat some more lessons into his thick head.

"Mademoiselle McLean? Savez-vous ou est la Guyane Français?" She snapped to attention, sitting up in her chair and focusing her eyes on the short, balding teacher at the front of the room, already easily deciphering his horrible accent in her head.

"Le Guyane Français est située en l'Amerique du Sud, Monsieur," Piper replied immediately, smirking when he scowled at her. He'd asked her where French Guinea was located, and she'd easily replied that it was in South America.

Amateur.

Obviously, Monsieur O'Malley had yet to realize that he wouldn't be able to catch her off guard, not while his classes were so easy and her uncanny gift that allowed for French to come so easily to her.

"Tres bien, Mademoiselle," he ground out, glaring at her idle smirk. "Now class, please flip to page one-hundred thirty…" and Piper tuned him out again. She flicked her eyes to the clock at the front of the room, making sure she groaned loud enough that Monsieur O'Malley could hear her when she saw there were still fifteen minutes left before she could escape. He flicked his eyes in her direction again, looking like he could cheerfully throttle her.

Sighing again, she fixed her eyes on her one source of entertainment in this god-awful class. Three rows to the front, two seats to the right.

Jason Grace, president of the grade, Superman lookalike and her longtime object of affection. She could still remember the impromptu celebration she and Percy had thrown at the beginning of the year when they'd found out that they both had classes with their crushes.

So now, seven months later, her sole source of pleasure in this tedious lesson was still the back of Jason's head.

Which was totally not creepy. Not at all.

But really, it just wasn't fair. Even looking at the back of his head, a blind man could see that Jason was ridiculously good-looking. The dude was prettier than Piper. It simply wasn't _fair_ that someone could be so attractive when they were confused, or happy, or upset, or-

Okay, Piper. Get a grip! No swooning over Grace and his blond hair and blue, blue eyes, and that funny little scar on his lip, or how he was always _so _polite and intelligent…

Oh god. She really needed to get over this infatuation.

Resolutely slouching in her chair and bringing her hands to her hair to start twisting braids, she forced all thoughts of Jason out of her head and turned her attention to coming up for the workout for swimming practice that day.

Even thinking about trying to keep Percy from drowning while he tried to catch glimpses of Annabeth was better than fantasizing about _Jason-freaking-Grace._

But she had to grin a little, thinking about what she had planned for Jason, the poor boy wouldn't even know what had hit him.

…

Piper stood with Percy on the deck of the pool, watching the rest of the team as they stretched before practice.

Due to the pool being outdoors, near the locker rooms, the water this semester was comfortable enough to swim in without the entire team contracting hypothermia. Which could be difficult to explain to the teachers.

"Percy, stop looking around like that. I swear, your head looks like a swivel chair," Piper hissed, elbowing him in the side.

He cast her a mock-wounded look, clasping a hand over his heart. "You cut me deep, McLean. I think I may die from the pain!" He dropped to one knee and pretended to keel over.

Piper just rolled her eyes, already used to his antics, and then grinned evilly. "Hey look, Percy, there's Annabeth! I think she's looking this way!" She nearly burst out laughing at how fast he shot to his feet and looked around, and she could practically see a wagging tail as if he were some hyperactive puppy.

"Where? Seriously, Piper, where is she-" he cut off abruptly when Piper could no longer contain her peals of laughter, and she only laughed harder at the look of utter disgust he sent her.

"Y-Your face!" Piper wheezed, barely able to breathe. "God, you were practically shaking with excitement!" She laughed again with new purpose when some members of the swim team started chuckling with her. Some of them had known Piper and Percy since they joined the team in their freshman year.

She could still vividly remember what had prompted them to join. It had been the end of the first Friday of their first week at this school, and Piper had been looking forward to going home and kicking back for the weekend, preferably with a stack of Disney movies and several large bowls of popcorn and chocolate, and sans the ridiculous stack of homework she had been assigned. The ridiculous stack of homework she had plans of ignoring until Sunday night when she would get it all done at the last possible second.

_She had been walking down the hallway towards the front doors; her backpack weighed down by her numerous textbooks, when she'd heard her best friend shout her name, almost hysterically. _

_ "Piper! Piper, wait up!" She sighed and turned, seeing Percy sprinting down the hallway as fast as his stuffed backpack would allow. He skidded to a stop next to her, panting and red faced, as though he'd been running all over the school looking for her. _

_ "Pipes- she- I said- we were-" Percy gasped in incoherent monosyllabic words, clearly to excited or flustered or maybe just plain out of breath to say anything even remotely understandable._

_ "Dude," Piper held one hand up and waved it in front of Percy's face, trying to gesture for him to calm down. "Breathe and tell me what happened."_

_ Percy took a deep breathe, but the longer he spent trying to even his breathing, the redder his face turned, and Piper was beginning to become concerned._

_ "Percy. Percy!" His eyes snapped to hers, and his breathing calmed. "Okay," he began. "So you know Annabeth Chase?"_

_ Piper's eyes shot up to her hairline. Annabeth Chase? Percy had had a crush on the blonde since at least fifth grade, and it seemed she had finally noticed that he existed. Piper had been friends with Annabeth for nearly as long, and they had a tradition of stealing each other's food at lunch when they sat together. Still, she had never paid Percy much attention._

_ "What about Annabeth?" Piper asked cautiously, curious about how that conversation had gone down. She knew Percy was barely capable of stringing two words together around her._

_ "So my Algebra class got held up and we were the last ones out, and so we started talking-"_

"_What? You? Were able to speak to Annabeth Chase without babbling incoherently? It's a miracle!" She nearly dropped to her knees, but she could tell with the weight of her backpack she would practically break her kneecaps and decided against it._

"_Shut up, Beauty Queen," Percy snapped, making Piper raised an eyebrow. Her best friend only called her that when he was telling her something important. Or if she had worn a dress for her Dad's sake. "Anyway, she said she was going to be running for student council, which I think is a great idea since, well, she's brilliant and clever and she's obviously going to be elected-"_

"_Percy. Get to the point," Piper interrupted, amused at how Percy was unable to control his tongue when Annabeth wasn't even there._

"_Okay, so I told her it was a great idea and then she asked if I was going to be doing any clubs, and I panicked and told her we were both going to be trying out for the swim team," Percy finished in a rush._

_Piper let her head fall back with a groan. "Of course. Naturally when you go get yourself into these messes, you just have to drag me into them with you, don't you?"_

_Percy clasped his hands together, giving her his best impression of puppy dog eyes. "Please, Piper? Please please please?" Piper groaned and considered her options for a moment. Percy had always excelled at swimming, and she knew that it would help with her with her surfing._

_Before she could changer her mind she blurted, "Fine, I'll do it."_

_Percy had shouted once and threw his arms around her, apparently doing his best to squeeze the life out of her._

"_Thanks, Pipes! You're the best. Seriously."_

Piper smirked, remembering how excited Percy had been about Annabeth acknowledging his existence. It had been two years since then, and the pair had finally progressed to occasionally exchanging small talk when they passed each other in the hallways.

But something had come out of Percy's unthinking declaration that day. Percy had been voted captain of the swim team with Piper as his co captain at the beginning of their junior year. They had both made friends on the team, to the point that they all knew about Percy's hopeless crush on Annabeth and they could laugh easily about Piper's teasing.

When Piper's laughter stopped, she barely had time to look up and register two things: two blond heads standing outside the pool gates and the mischievous glint in Percy's eyes just before he scooped her up and tossed her into the chilly water.

_Asshole._

…

"But think about it, not only would it be easier to do a black and white dance, the decorations wouldn't be that big of a blow on the class budget. We could do some cookouts on the beach with the remainder of the money."

Annabeth shifted the weight of her enormous gray backpack on her shoulders and tried to listen as Jason argued his point that a 'Black and White' theme would be better for the Spring Dance, while she wanted to do a masquerade ball.

She opened her mouth to say a convincing argument as to why a masquerade ball would be _so much better _(and her reasoning was not that she'd always wanted to wear a mask but something so logical that he would immediately see her side of things) but she was distracted suddenly by the sound of peals of laughter from the direction of the pool, and both she and Jason looked up.

Piper and Percy were standing inside the gates while the swim team stretched, Piper doubled over with laughter while Percy stood over her, looking disgruntled.

And no, her eyes didn't linger on his muscular legs under his green swimsuit and his bare chest and the goggles dangling around his neck. And the casual, friendly air around the two didn't send a pang through her chest at all. She was just… hungry. Because she'd skipped lunch to have a student council meeting. That was the reason.

She saw way the rest of the swim team chuckled at the pair's antics, and couldn't resist a little laugh herself. The two had caused more than their fair share of trouble during their time in high school, and they could be found in detention after school many days.

But when Piper stood up and glanced over in Annabeth's direction for a moment just before Percy scooped her up and tossed her into the pool Annabeth couldn't resist breaking out into what sounded like suppressed giggling.

Percy immediately looked up, as though searching for the source of her laughter and when he made eye contact with her for a moment, his warm green eyes did not make her knees a little weak. Nope, not at all.

So when Piper came up for air, sputtering curses and splashing water at Percy, Annabeth turned away and waved goodbye to Jason without really seeing him and briskly walked down the path towards home. Which was why she didn't see how Percy's eyes lingered on her back for long moments before he turned and jumped into the pool, dousing Piper and nearly drowning her with a tidal wave.

It was also why she didn't see the way Jason hesitated for a moment, his eyes tracing Piper's head floating in the water before he too made his way home.

For all that she was possibly the smartest girl in the junior year, Annabeth could be pretty oblivious to certain things.

…

**Dear Beauty Queen,**

** My advice is: go for it! It's about **_**time**_** a girl decided to take the initiative around here! A lot of people tend to overthink how to ask their crush out, so make sure you don't plan it out too carefully. If you do you might get flustered and panic. If you think he likes you back, then just act like you normally do. After all, it's you he likes and he should appreciate you just being comfortable around him.**

**You got this, girl!**

**-The Oracle, New Roman Times**

…

"Hey, Octavian, check this out!" Rachel called to the blond, waving a paper excitedly through the air at her co-editor as he wrestled with their demon printer, which, he was convinced, was a vessel for the antichrist.

"Hang on, Lucifer's about to spit out that article on the science fair next month-" sounds of the printer beeping and hissing could be heard across the room, followed by silence.

"Octavian? You still with me?" Rachel asked, only slightly concerned.

"False alarm. The little fucker is attempting to bait me into another match, where it will undoubtedly launch a potentially fatal counter-attack. But no matter," Octavian threw down his paper and stormed away from the counter. "I will not be fooled! I will live and fight another day."

The redhead had to laugh at Octavian's antics. When they had first started working together on the newspaper in their sophomore year, she had been somewhat put off by his cold demeanor. But after a month or two, she had discovered his quirky (and only a little twisted) sense of humor, coupled with the fact that he was a total nerd under that glare. Even she had to admit that he was a decent person sometimes.

"Are you sure you don't want to attack now? Strike while it's not expecting it?" she teased, ever-amused by the epic saga of Octavian versus their office supplies.

"Dare, you mock me!" Octavian said with a huff, even as he rounded her desk to see the letter she had been waving through the air.

"Okay, listen to this," Rachel started eagerly, flourishing the paper in front of her and dramatically clearing her throat. "Dear Oracle-"

"So someone's going to ask Jason out? Do you know who it is?" Octavian interrupted, obviously having finished the letter already.

Rachel spun around and gave him an incredulous look, the letter lying forgotten on her desk. "Octavian! You were supposed to let me read it! I did the dramatic throat clearing and everything." She groaned once, and but shrugged off her annoyance as when her green eyes brightened again. "Okay, so anyway I'm positive the writer is Piper. I mean seriously, Beauty Queen? Who else would write that? But I didn't know she liked Jason."

"I'm pretty sure that you were the only one who didn't. You and Jason, that is." He shrugged. "Was that the last one?"

"One more," she tore into a plain envelope, "oh, I know this one!"

"You do?" he gulped as he recognized the print that he had adopted to disguise his normal handwriting by using his right hand. This could end badly, to say the least.

"Yeah, they wrote last week. I think that I have a secret admirer or something."

"Is he blind?"

"Don't you have a printer to wrestle with"?

"You win this round, traitor."


End file.
